Contents of the average PPL Flight Case
Joined: Jul 2009
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From: London
Ghengis no worries I should have written
Stuff to leave at home:
- torch (unless you are flying through dusk/ or in the night and/ or are prone to dropping things
)
BackPacker,
Stuff you might need OR could rent/ borrow
I do like your zip-lock freezer bag idea assuming they are cheap and don't leak?
Stuff to leave at home:
- torch (unless you are flying through dusk/ or in the night and/ or are prone to dropping things
)BackPacker,
Never seen a place where you could rent sick bags.
I do like your zip-lock freezer bag idea assuming they are cheap and don't leak?
Joined: Feb 2007
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From: Amsterdam
I have not yet have to use them in anger.
The only airsick passenger I've had so far brought his own bag. A full-sized binliner. And used it extensively. But he knew it beforehand, because he's the type that gets seasick by looking at Titanic (the movie). It was brave of him to get into a light aircraft in the first place. And with me, even...
The only airsick passenger I've had so far brought his own bag. A full-sized binliner. And used it extensively. But he knew it beforehand, because he's the type that gets seasick by looking at Titanic (the movie). It was brave of him to get into a light aircraft in the first place. And with me, even...
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 128
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From: South East England
I once was caught unprepared when a passenger felt sick - during a frantic search through my pockets for something suitable I found a (unused!) dog poo bag. Worked perfectly and had a tie top. 
Joined: Oct 2011
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From: UK
I once was caught unprepared when a passenger felt sick - during a frantic search through my pockets for something suitable I found a (unused!) dog poo bag. Worked perfectly and had a tie top.
Never had a sicky, or felt sick meself. Still carry a sick bag or two though, mum's cooking is not what it used to be
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,831
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From: Moray,Scotland,U.K.
Nobody carries anything related to survival?
That torch would be useful if you go down in the late afternoon, and it gets dark before help arrives/you walk out.
Plastic survival bags. Space blanket. Knife suitable for breaking out through perspex/wood if trapped. (eg aircraft is upside down on soft ground)
Camping stove solid fuel pack - to start a fire.
That torch would be useful if you go down in the late afternoon, and it gets dark before help arrives/you walk out.
Plastic survival bags. Space blanket. Knife suitable for breaking out through perspex/wood if trapped. (eg aircraft is upside down on soft ground)
Camping stove solid fuel pack - to start a fire.
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 3,113
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From: 23, Railway Cuttings, East Cheam
Nobody carries anything related to survival?
Out of interest I've just had a look in my flight CASE, ahem, (I had it given to me). Bear in mind I use it to keep all of my stuff in whether used or not.
Southern and Northern half mils (unfortunately I'm based right near the join of the two maps)
2xnormal pens
pack of 4 non permanent markers
pack of 4 permanent markers
digital stopwatch
headband LED torch
3xpilot's checklists
logbook
protractor and ruler
sunnies
whizz wheel
kneeboard, in the kneeboard I carry Pooleys pages of the airfields I'm most likely to visit on a whim
camera
high viz vest
12x enormous paperclips for keeping the map folded where I want it.
calculator
In my head set case
A headset (how novel)
GPS and stuff for sticking it on things/hooking it up to the fag lighter
Last edited by thing; 30th November 2011 at 22:05.
Moderator
Joined: Feb 2000
Aviation Qualifications: CPL
Posts: 14,480
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From: UK
I find it interesting that the experienced aviators polarise into the "everything but the kitchen sink" group, and the "nothing but a scrap of paper and my sunglasses" group. Not quite sure what that says about the two groups' relative psychologies.
G
G
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 1,486
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From: Darwin
Things I carry in my flight bag.
Two torches - one white, one red
Fuel drainer
ERSA
A couple of maps
License
A couple of pens
Things I carry on my kneeboard
Flight plan
A pen and a pencil
Things I carry in my headset bag
My headset
Things that live in the aircraft and therefore I dont lug around with me
Survival kit and water/food
ELT
Dipstick
Sick bags
Life jackets
Two torches - one white, one red
Fuel drainer
ERSA
A couple of maps
License
A couple of pens
Things I carry on my kneeboard
Flight plan
A pen and a pencil
Things I carry in my headset bag
My headset
Things that live in the aircraft and therefore I dont lug around with me
Survival kit and water/food
ELT
Dipstick
Sick bags
Life jackets
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 748
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From: LFMD
I confess that as far as my flight bag goes, I fall into the "kitchen sink" category, despite being by nature more of a "sunglasses and scrap of paper" type. I'm not at home at the moment so this is a bit of a guess but...
-- POH for the plane (not the definitive one, that lives in the plane and is falling to pieces)
-- California approach plates in binder
-- California airports guide
-- A/FD (official airport info), generally several issues out of date
-- instructions for sundry odds & ends such as handheld GPS
-- E6B, not that I ever use it, AND chinagraph pencil (pauses for admiration to subside)
-- plotter, ditto
-- bag of batteries
-- handheld GPS & radio
-- sick bag
-- emergency pee bag, though it's so old and battered that it'd probably leak if I ever needed to use it
-- VFR charts for half the country, mostly out of date except local ones
-- sundry pens and several flashlights(/torches)
And that's AFTER I tidied it up while looking for something. I have my own plane, so there's a lot more stuff that lives permanently in the plane - headsets, tools, oxygen stuff, and so on and so on.
-- POH for the plane (not the definitive one, that lives in the plane and is falling to pieces)
-- California approach plates in binder
-- California airports guide
-- A/FD (official airport info), generally several issues out of date
-- instructions for sundry odds & ends such as handheld GPS
-- E6B, not that I ever use it, AND chinagraph pencil (pauses for admiration to subside)
-- plotter, ditto
-- bag of batteries
-- handheld GPS & radio
-- sick bag
-- emergency pee bag, though it's so old and battered that it'd probably leak if I ever needed to use it
-- VFR charts for half the country, mostly out of date except local ones
-- sundry pens and several flashlights(/torches)
And that's AFTER I tidied it up while looking for something. I have my own plane, so there's a lot more stuff that lives permanently in the plane - headsets, tools, oxygen stuff, and so on and so on.
Joined: May 2007
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From: Banished (twice) to the pointless forest
Personal Choice is paramount, but I would suggest:
A4 size self sealing bags,
Niceday Grip Seal Plain Bags Clear 224 x 324 mm 1000 Per Pack by Viking
like large sandwich bags. I use them at work so I have loads spare in the office. Sick Sacks are not just for passengers, you would be very pissed off if your first ever, however unexpected, airpuke soiled the aircraft because you had no "Boak Poke" with you.
I wear a lanyard (currently using a Strongbow promotional item) with my Mini Maglite and Digi Camera clipped to it. I know where to find them, I know they can't get dropped and I know they are not going to fall off the seat and foul anything.
I should also mention that when I started out I wore polo shirts, but now I only wear proper shirts, with pockets. This makes the XDA (IPAQ style GPS) and and my iPhone easier to locate in flight.
My kneeboard, which I couldn't do without, has a piece of string tied firmly to it. The other end of the string is wrapped five times around the end of a bic biro which has been coated in super glue. This ensures my pen is not going to fall on the floor and the string is not long enough for the pen to foul the controls.
My spare specs live in the flight bag on the back seat, in a velcro sealed compartment which I can reach when the big bag is restrained by the rear seatbelts.
AP
A4 size self sealing bags,
Niceday Grip Seal Plain Bags Clear 224 x 324 mm 1000 Per Pack by Viking
like large sandwich bags. I use them at work so I have loads spare in the office. Sick Sacks are not just for passengers, you would be very pissed off if your first ever, however unexpected, airpuke soiled the aircraft because you had no "Boak Poke" with you.
I wear a lanyard (currently using a Strongbow promotional item) with my Mini Maglite and Digi Camera clipped to it. I know where to find them, I know they can't get dropped and I know they are not going to fall off the seat and foul anything.
I should also mention that when I started out I wore polo shirts, but now I only wear proper shirts, with pockets. This makes the XDA (IPAQ style GPS) and and my iPhone easier to locate in flight.
My kneeboard, which I couldn't do without, has a piece of string tied firmly to it. The other end of the string is wrapped five times around the end of a bic biro which has been coated in super glue. This ensures my pen is not going to fall on the floor and the string is not long enough for the pen to foul the controls.
My spare specs live in the flight bag on the back seat, in a velcro sealed compartment which I can reach when the big bag is restrained by the rear seatbelts.
AP
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 335
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From: New Zealand
I got:
Kneepad
License
Log book (left in the office when flying)
Whizz wheel - hardly used
POH (If flying the 172)
Backup pens/pencils
And because my medical mandates it
Inhaler (never ever used)
Backup glasses.
Kneepad
- Two thin line markers
- Laminated Cheat sheet with spaces for all ATIS response and fuel calcs etc... notes too (enroute frequencies)
- Laminated Chart for the 4 surrounding 'dromes + VFR App/Dept procedures
License
Log book (left in the office when flying)
Whizz wheel - hardly used
POH (If flying the 172)
Backup pens/pencils
And because my medical mandates it
Inhaler (never ever used)
Backup glasses.
Moderator
Joined: Feb 2000
Aviation Qualifications: CPL
Posts: 14,480
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From: UK
Doing a longish nightflight earlier today, I found a long forgotten cylume lurking in the bottom of my flight bag.
Activating it, it still worked, and was absolutely brilliant in flight for charts/kneeboard/compass.... This year I seem to have done more night flying, for some reason, than I've done for years. Good reasons to use these again - I still have a box of them I bought on eBay a few years ago lurking in a cupboard, and could do with transferring a few into my flight bag again.
G
Activating it, it still worked, and was absolutely brilliant in flight for charts/kneeboard/compass.... This year I seem to have done more night flying, for some reason, than I've done for years. Good reasons to use these again - I still have a box of them I bought on eBay a few years ago lurking in a cupboard, and could do with transferring a few into my flight bag again.
G
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 665
Likes: 8
From: Essex
2xnormal pens
pack of 4 non permanent markers
pack of 4 permanent markers
pack of 4 non permanent markers
pack of 4 permanent markers
My spare specs live in the flight bag on the back seat, in a velcro sealed compartment which I can reach when the big bag is restrained by the rear seatbelts.
Moderator
Joined: Feb 2000
Aviation Qualifications: CPL
Posts: 14,480
Likes: 178
From: UK
Paperless office?
Anybody else remember that when computers became commonplace, the first thing to happen was that the bookshops filled with books and magazines about computers!
G
Anybody else remember that when computers became commonplace, the first thing to happen was that the bookshops filled with books and magazines about computers!
G
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 56
Likes: 0
From: Scotland
Stuff
Just had a look in my flight bag
- Pens (several of which don't work)
- Set of permanent markers
- Rulers & plotters (several. These get lost so I buy another only for the previous one to turn up again)
- Sportys E6 & spare batteries (rarely used)
- Skydemon (too risky to keep in the aircraft)
- A4 binder of approach plates (don't know why, my a/c is day VFR only)
- Copy of Pilots Atlas (dream on)
- Kneeboard
- Half Mil maps of UK
- Pooleys (must get an up to date one this year)
- Licence
- Log Book
- Aircraft Keys (always keep them in the bag. Used to put them on the key rack in the hall but kept leaving them behind - not good)
- Paper
- Several old met/Notam printouts
- Small vanity mirror (not sure how this got there but it's been in there for ages)
- Sick bags
I always carry a sick bag now. A few years ago I was flying into a farm strip in a Cub when my passenger declared himself to be unwell. Not having anything fit for purpose to hand and being rather occupied with the approach the only thing I had to hand was my carefully folded map - not good but better than redecorating the cockpit
- Pens (several of which don't work)
- Set of permanent markers
- Rulers & plotters (several. These get lost so I buy another only for the previous one to turn up again)
- Sportys E6 & spare batteries (rarely used)
- Skydemon (too risky to keep in the aircraft)
- A4 binder of approach plates (don't know why, my a/c is day VFR only)
- Copy of Pilots Atlas (dream on)
- Kneeboard
- Half Mil maps of UK
- Pooleys (must get an up to date one this year)
- Licence
- Log Book
- Aircraft Keys (always keep them in the bag. Used to put them on the key rack in the hall but kept leaving them behind - not good)
- Paper
- Several old met/Notam printouts
- Small vanity mirror (not sure how this got there but it's been in there for ages)
- Sick bags
I always carry a sick bag now. A few years ago I was flying into a farm strip in a Cub when my passenger declared himself to be unwell. Not having anything fit for purpose to hand and being rather occupied with the approach the only thing I had to hand was my carefully folded map - not good but better than redecorating the cockpit
Guest
Posts: n/a
When I did my IR I was perplexed to see my instructor didn't carry everything including the kitchen sink. I thought IFR required a huge stuffed flight bag . But no; headset, half-mil, one of those awful paper IFR charts, relevant plates and mobile phone. Talk about travelling light! But it was really all he needed.
Nobody has mentioned condoms and tampons have they? Only relevant if you're forced-landing over remote terrain but when night flying in Scotland I carry both - tampons to get fuel out of the tanks, condoms to carry water (but bottled water largely replaces the condom requirement nowadays). On the assumption that it's remote enough anyway but at night it'll be at least another 12 hours before they get out to you. And it'll be cold. Carry a poncho too.
Nobody has mentioned condoms and tampons have they? Only relevant if you're forced-landing over remote terrain but when night flying in Scotland I carry both - tampons to get fuel out of the tanks, condoms to carry water (but bottled water largely replaces the condom requirement nowadays). On the assumption that it's remote enough anyway but at night it'll be at least another 12 hours before they get out to you. And it'll be cold. Carry a poncho too.
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 3,113
Likes: 2
From: 23, Railway Cuttings, East Cheam
Thats 10, yes 10, writing tools. What are you going to do when they introduce the paperless cockpit in GA?!!
